The NT policeman who led an elite team in an Indigenous community after a teen was shot dead has criticised the actions of officers involved in the incident.

October 27, 2022

The commander of an elite Northern Territory tactical police unit has criticised the actions of officers involved in the shooting death of an Indigenous teenager.

Kumanjayi Walker, 19, died after Constable Zachary Rolfe shot him three times during a bungled arrest in Yuendumu, northwest of Alice Springs on November 9, 2019.

An Alice Springs inquest into this death heard on Thursday that before the shooting, Const Rolfe and four other officers started conducting so-called intelligence gathering in preparation for an approved arrest early the following morning when Mr Walker was likely to be sleepy and easily detained.

They did this by visiting his relatives’ homes and asking where he was.

But the commander of the unit sent to secure Yuendumu after the shooting, Sergeant Meacham King, told the coroner Const Rolfe and his team weren’t intelligence gathering.

“They (were) actually searching and looking to apprehend Kumanjayi at that point in time,” the veteran policeman said.

“The idea of intelligence gathering is to understand the layout of a place to get intelligence on how you would effect the apprehension at 5am … But not actually attend the residence.”

Sgt King said “intelligence gathering would be to drive past (the house) to get an understanding of where the doors are and how to get through the gate”.

“So going to that house that afternoon and looking for him probably would make it highly unlikely he would be there the next morning.”

Mr Walker was in one of the houses Const Rolfe and another officer entered and searched.

He stabbed Const Rolfe with a pair of scissors in the shoulder and resisted arrest as the officers attempted to handcuff him.

Const Rolfe shot him once in the back and twice in the torso seconds later.

The teen died on the floor of the local police station about an hour later.

Earlier, Sgt King told the inquest that when he arrived in Yuendumu in the hours after the shooting he found the officer sent from Alice Springs to control the police response to the shooting, Sergeant Terry Zhang, was struggling with the mammoth task assigned to him.

Sgt King agreed with counsel assisting Patrick Coleridge that he expected to find a more experienced police officer in charge at Yuendumu.

“I was a little bit surprised with the seriousness of what we had why we hadn’t sent out someone more senior to control it,” he said.

Sgt King said he also observed that Yuendumu’s local police officers were in an “uneasy state” when his team arrived.

The inquest continues.